Like many of you, HGA has been closely monitoring the evolving COVID-19 situation. In the interest of the health and safety of our clients and staff, the HGA Group is taking the following proactive measures to help prevent the spread of the virus:
- Our office will remain operational but our staff and partners will be working remotely and unavailable for in-person meetings.
- Should you wish to contact any individual in our office, please do so by email or phone as these will be monitored as usual during business hours. If you are unaware of an individual’s contact information, please call 780-489-9750 to either be redirected by our receptionist or use our automated directory.
- Until further notice, all meetings will be held either by call or video conference. We will contact you individually to make arrangements suitable to you.
- We strongly encourage all personal tax clients to follow the electronic process set out in our email communication sent last week. Where at all possible, please submit your personal tax documents electronically at the end of the personal tax questionnaire or by email to clientcare@hgacpa.com. If you didn’t receive our email last week, please reply to this message and we will be happy to resend. Please note that we do not require originals of any documents; pictures or scans are sufficient. If you fully complete and send in any of our ancillary schedules for items such as rental properties, employment expenses, self-employed business, moving expenses etc., we do not require any receipts or supporting documentation to be provided.
- In regard to corporate records, we strongly encourage any documents that can be provided electronically to be submitted by email, DropBox or whichever file transfer service you prefer. Should you have questions on exactly what information we require as part of your corporate year-end preparation, please contact your Manager or Partner at HGA and we will be happy to assist you in stream-lining this process.
- In the event you need to deliver paper documents to us, we will have coverage at reception from 8:30 to 12:00 and from 1:00 to 4:30, Monday to Friday. Please follow the posted instructions at our elevator to gain access to our office. Please note that we will not process any documents for a minimum of three days from the date they are dropped off to prevent the transfer of the virus through these items. We will provide an update should the virus situation force the closure of our reception.
- We will obtain signatures we may need from you by electronic means (via DocuSign).
- Any cheques previously provided to us to send in on your behalf will still be couriered to the relevant tax authority at the appropriate time. As this situation is continuously evolving, we are temporarily not accepting any further cheques to pay outstanding CRA or Alberta Finance balances. Please pay CRA balances by using the ‘CRA – My Payment’ service (https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/e-services/payment-save-time-pay-online.html), or any tax balance at your local bank or through its online banking system. Should you require assistance with this, please contact us.
Payments to HGA will still be accepted by cheque or through our online processing system https://hgacpa.com/payment/.
It is our intention that the services we provide to you and/or your business carry on as usual to the greatest extent possible. As of this time, the CRA has indicated that they will not be extending any deadlines. Should their position remain unchanged and you feel that you are unable to provide us with the normal information required to complete your filing(s) by the deadline(s), please contact us to discuss how we can assist. We will continue to monitor and keep you informed about potential changes to these deadlines and other matters affecting you and your business. We are available at any time for questions on how to help you and your business respond to this ongoing situation.
We thank you for your understanding in our need to adapt to best preserve the health of all involved.
Best regards,